Found injured in a cooling canal at a New Jersey power plant, this loggerhead sea turtle was immediately sent to a stranding center in Brigantine, N.J. for monitoring and care. Three weeks later, she was sent to the South Carolina Aquarium via private plane for further evaluation and treatment.
The turtle was deemed nonreleasable. In addition to complex injuries, her existing health issues, including scoliosis, place her at high risk for further injury. If released in the wild, she would not survive. The aquarium needed to find a permanent home for this particular animal.
So now she is at La Jolla’s Birch Aquarium to teach more than 430,000 annual visitors about sea turtles around the world.